THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (1976)
Blogtober Qualifications: Murder, murderers, the 1940s, awful day-for-night
The town of Texarkana is shocked by the brutal nighttime assault of two young lovers by a mystery assailant. Three weeks later, the attacker strikes another couple, this time killing both of them.
Sheriff's Deputy Norman Ramsey (Andrew Prine), has taken a special interest in the case, and is the first to pick up on some important details. So, when famous Texas Ranger J.D. Morales (Ben Johnson) is called to Texarkana to solve the crimes, Ramsey becomes his de facto second in command. Along with bumbling policeman A.C. "Sparkplug" Benson (Charles B. Pierce), the two are off to stop the killer at all costs.
So, full disclosure: I had never heard of this movie until a few weeks ago. In fact, I knew almost nothing about it other than that it was based on a true story, and that it may have been an inspiration for Jason Voorhees. So I didn't really know what to expect when going into it. And you know what? It's dull.
Like, wow, is it dull. It's not horrible, it's just... dull. I don't mean to repeat myself, but that's just the strongest feeling I get from it. It's not interesting enough to be horrible, but it is bad enough to be bad.
For starters, Ramsey and Morales are the only people with anything close to acting ability, and even they aren't great. Most everyone else acts like they didn't realize the cameras were rolling, and some of them make you feel like their lines are being fed to them from offscreen. Sparkplug almost escapes these doldrums, but his character is so out-of-place that it's hard to tell.
Speaking of "out-of-place," this movie has a surprising amount of what I think is supposed to be humor. Most of it isn't funny, but I'm almost positive that it's meant to be comic relief, but there's so little tension and drama (legitimate drama, at least) that the "relief" is unnecessary. This is no joke: I wound up going to Wikipedia halfway through the movie to confirm that this was supposed to be a horror movie. There is one tense chase scene through a field at night, but it drags on too long and is ultimately pointless.
Beyond that, there's a ton of small, almost non-sequitur scenes peppered throughout, seemingly to fill up time so they could hit the 90 minute mark. Of special note is a scene where we see two young boys skinny-dipping in a pond, because that was something we needed to see in this movie about a serial killer.
As if all of this weren't bad enough, it doesn't even come to a satisfying conclusion. It just sort of... ends.
Oh, and before I forget, it features what might be the absolute worst day-for-night I've ever seen. Observe:
Yep. Definitely the middle of the night.
Anyway, if you want to see it and just treat it like a comedy, some of the humor works, though probably not enough to really make it worth your while. Otherwise, you're left with a horror movie with all the subtlety and tension of a bog-standard Dukes of Hazzard episode, with none of the pathos.
Tomorrow we jump over to something that's actually supposed to be funny, but should still prove to be scary. I still anticipate some day-for-night, though.
Until next time!
Current interests:
Listening - R.E.M.: Out of Time (1991)
Playing - Culdcept Revolt (2017)
Reading - B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Russia (2011)
Watching - Thunderbirds Are Go! (2015)
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